Although applicable in principal to any wireless communication system, the present invention and its underlying problem will be hereinafter described in combination with a user equipment and a base station.
In a mobile communication network, a secure communication between a base station and a user equipment may be established by encrypted communication between the base station and the user equipment. The encryption may be based on a pre-shared key provided by the base station.
In such a scenario, it may be possible to spoof a base station by establishing the “fake”-base station. For example, an attacker may establish a base station comprising a baseband unit (BBU) and a remote radio unit (RRU) which are controlled by the attacker. In such a scenario, the attacker may provide a known pre-shared key for establishing a connection between the spoofed base station and the user equipment. Accordingly, the user equipment may not recognize that the spoofed base station is controlled by an attacker.